Turkish Literature as World Literature

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Essays covering a broad range of genres and ranging from the late Ottoman era to contemporary literature open the debate on the place of Turkish literature in the globalized literary world. Explorations of the multilingual cosmopolitanism of the Ottoman literary scene are complemented by examples of cross-generational intertextual encounters. The renowned poet Nzim Hikmet is studied from a variety of angles, while contemporary and popular writers such as Orhan Pamuk and Elif Safak are contextualized. Turkish Literature as World Literature not only fills a significant lacuna in world literary studies but also draws a composite historical, political, and cultural portrait of Turkey in its relations with the broader world.

Reviews

The transformative idea that Turkish literature is not simply limited by the horizon of the nation has opened new critical and theoretical approaches in the field. Turkish Literature as World Literature marks an important milestone in the innovative study of the literatures of Turkey as worldly, cosmopolitan, polyglot, and transnational cultural productions that link disparate regions and cultures. * Erdag Gknar, Associate Professor of Turkish & Middle East Studies, Duke University, USA, and author of Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy: The Politics of the Turkish Novel (2013) *
Turkish Literature as World Literature is a valuable contribution with essays that seek to challenge, question, and modify Eurocentric world literature theories dominant in the field. With its case studies, the volume seeks to propel world literature theories to unexplored horizons. * Beyza Lorenz, Lecturer in Turkish Language and Literature, University of California Los Angeles, USA *
These 12 essays present a kaleidoscopic view of original reflections on Turkish literary writing from the 1850s until today by authors from Namik Kemal to Orhan Pamuk. In their detailed overview, the editors scrutinize previous approaches to Turkish literature through lenses provided by world literature studies, which they critically approach by unsettling the foundational concepts of center and periphery. Among the topics discussed in this brilliant contribution to world literature studies are 19th-century considerations of world literature by Ottoman authors, transnational literary exchanges, political internationalization, and translation. Challenging and reformulating conventional ways of thinking about modern Turkish literature, the essays in the volume delineate new ways to consider how Turkish literature becomes world literature. * Selim S. Kuru, Associate Professor and Department Chair of Turkish and Ottoman Studies, University of Washington, USA *

Author Bio

Burcu Alkan is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, UK. imen Gnay-Erkol is Assistant Professor at zyegin University, Turkey.